Images of maiko (apprentice geisha) greet tourists at numerous sites in Kyoto, embodying the ancient Japanese capital in its cutest, most welcoming form. Perky maiko grace maps, menus, and city posters, and even make it onto post-it notes, hand towels, and cappuccino designs. Exploring Kyoto through this lens, how do the maiko as “cool Japan” and “Kyoto kawaii” (cute) frame “old Japan” itself as an inviting consumable? Why has the teenage maiko displaced the more adult geisha as the Kyoto fantasy femme? And what do we learn about girlhood today in Japan as we contrast this good-girl maiko image to a host of other popular representations of girls in millennial Japan?